The field of the present disclosure relates generally to airport runway surfaces and, more specifically, to a runway formed from a plurality of modular roadway structures having a tailorable surface texture and capable of housing functional devices therein.
Many known airport runway surfaces, especially those located at large commercial airports, are fabricated from concrete or asphalt. For example, airport runway surfaces are generally fabricated from large amounts of poured concrete forming slabs having a thickness of up to about 20 inches. Forming the slabs from concrete enables the runway surface to withstand high exhaust temperatures from aircraft during takeoff and to withstand the weight of increasingly large aircraft, for example. While generally providing a desirable friction force for vehicles operating thereon, at least some known airport runway surfaces incorporate surface texturing or surface treatments of the concrete slabs to modify the surface properties of the runway surface. Incorporating such modifications to the runway surface can be a time-consuming and laborious task, and provides limited improvements to the surface properties of the runway surface during adverse weather conditions. Moreover, the solid construction of the concrete slabs makes it difficult for underlying technologies to be installed therein.